Sagrada Familia - Ticket Timing and Towers

Based on comments on this forum, I believe your tower entry time will be 15 minutes after the entry time for the church. There seems to be no flexibility there. Perhaps that is made clear during the online booking process. I am not familiar with that because I bought my ticket in person at the Tourist Office.

I haven't ascended one of the towers, so I really don't know how long that takes. I believe I spent about 90 minutes in the church, including the small museum. I used the audio guide but am not at all religious, so others might well spend more time. If you hope everyone will finish up at the church at about the same time, you'll need to buy earlier tickets for the tower-climbers than for the rest of your party. I hope someone on the forum can give you a time estimate. If not, try Googling something like time for La Sagrada Familia tower. It's amazing what Google can turn up; any number will of course just be an estimate.

Important: There is a shop with some attractive merchandise. Once you enter the shop, you cannot return to the church. Be sure everyone in your group knows that. That's not where you want the non-tower people to go to kill time at the beginning of their visit!

I chose a first-entry time-slot and was very pleased with that decision because the church was nearly empty when I walked in. For those who choose the tower option, I don't know that there's so much advantage to choosing the first time-slot from the crowding standpoint since additional people will be admitted to the church during their tower visit.

My visit was in August, and I thought the windows were beautiful early in the morning, but I've only seen them at that time of day so I can't say whether some other time would be appreciably better. However, this is one of the Barcelona sights where you must buy a timed ticket and be on time. That's a lot easier to do if you're not planning to go somewhere else first. Up to this point, I have seen no reports that Sant Pau has that limitation. I believe it's a good site to plan for later in the day, because you can probably just show up when it's convenient for you. I spent two hours at Sant Pau and really had to rush to finish before it closed. I think an additional room has been opened since then.

Hello Bookaholic,
We went to Barcelona for a week in october 18 months ago.
After reading different comments on when was the best timing to visit, and us not wanting to wakeup super early, we decided to go at the end of the day. Around 4-5pm if I recall. End of the day light is always special when you take pictures.
We are not Audio guide people, but this one helped us so much understanding the church and Gaudi's vision. It was such an added value.
If I remember correctly, the time on the ticket(that we bought a good month in advance), was not for the tower but for entering the church. Once you've seen the church inside, you go in line at the tower you chose when buying the ticket.
After all of that we went to Sant Pau Hospital to take pictures of the outside, but didn't feel the need to visit inside, especially after the incredible wow factor of the Sagrada.
Hope this helps.
Claude

For what it's worth, the Sant Pau site is very different from La Sagrada Familia. Two different architects.

Thank you both so much. Your answers have helped, although we're still a bit undecided. We'll hopefully come up with a decision this weekend.

Yes, the time is not flexible - they want you to go straight upon entering to the tower and get that over with, then you can take as long as you like in the main church afterward. I don't think it matters much what time of day you go for the towers, the view is good no matter what. Plus the part where you can see from the top of the tower is kind of limited so if you're hoping for a very specific view or lighting you may be disappointed.

Also I hate audioguides and thus did SF without one and didn't feel cheated. I think it just depends on if you like them or not.

Fredandkell, thank you.

I'm just wondering how to time it all, if three of us may want to go up to the Tower and two don't.

My question about timing is only with regards to with the light coming through the stained glass, not the towers. I have read that the best time is sunrise/early in the day and late afternoon/sunset. On the one hand, I have read time and time again that the earliest entrance times are best, especially with regards to crowds (although it's always crowded) and since it's a pre-booked ticket, to get there early and then be free for the rest of the day. Later in the day, however, seems to give the best light through the beautiful stained glass windows. I just wanted to know what others have experienced and/or can suggest.

Thank you for the audio guide tip. Most of us are not into them at all.

To be taken into account, in May, sunrise in Barcelona is between 7am (1st) and 6:30am (31st) and sunset between 8:45pm (1st) and 9:15pm (31st)... Sagrada Família in May opens at 9am and closes at 8pm.

Bookaholic get all 5 tix for same time. Three go up tower and forgo audio guide; 2 skip tower and use audio guide. Meet up after tower tour (which only takes 15-20 min) in sanctuary (fairly easy to find each other). The two not in tower will have audio guide to entertain them while waiting.

Also we were there around 9:45am and light through windows was still glorious. I wouldn’t stress over the “perfect” time to go; rather, what works best with your schedule.

This is all so helpful. Thank you!

I really appreciated the info given by the audio guide, but at LSF it comes at a fairly substantial additional cost. I don't remember the type of device used there, but I've read suggestions (perhaps in Rick's books?) to take a splitter and your own headphones so two people can share one audio device. Don't know that it would work for the equipment at LSF, though, and as I'm a solo traveler it's not something I've ever tried out.

My sister was in Barcelona last November. She loved the Sagrada Familia, but felt going up in the tower (I forget which one she did) was a waste of time and money; she says she should have just seen the church with the audioguide.

Obviously, not everyone agrees. But, if you all skip the tower, it makes your logistics easier.

And the posts above are correct. If you go the Sagrada Familia website and book a ticket with tower entrance, it fixes the time for both entering the church and (fifteen minutes later) entering the tower.

Official website to buy all the kinds of tickets: https://tickets.sagradafamilia.org/site/SagradaFamilia/

Thank you acraven and Harold. Thank you all!

Yesterday, I showed our son the stairs going down - photos as well as a short video that my friend who was recently there took. He's no longer that keen, and neither are the others. Given the fact that we do hope to get good views in other places, we've decided to not bother with the towers.

To further clinch the deal, I have read (haven't been up a tower myself) that the point of ascending a tower is not really to see the view--which apparently is not spectacular--but rather to get a close-up look at some of the architectural details. So if you were thinking about great views, you might well have been a bit disappointed.

acraven, thank you. That really helps. No, we'll spend our time and money on places with better views. We like architectural details and all, but will pass this time!

Agree with acraven.
I like spectacular views, always climb when possible, but this one didn’t do much for me, aside from looking upclose at architectural details.
I thought when I booked the ticket, I’ll never go back, might as well do the whole thing.

For great views, you can take the teleferic (cable car) up to the top of Montjuic, or the "blue tramway" up to the top of Tibidabo.

The teleferic now has a discount for buying tickets online in advance.

For Tibidabo, there's also a bus, which is cheaper and for which you can use a T-10 ticket; the blue tramway requires a separate ticket.

Yes indeed, Ann is right, the (visitable) towers at the Sagrada Família are merely 180ft high, that doesn't really give you a vantage point over the city. The reason to go up the towers is to see the impressive details of the top of the facade at a closer range.

For views,

• Tibidabo funfair, located in Tibidabo mountain, north of the city, offers the second best views over Barcelona, but again, it's costly and time-consuming to go there if (if!) views are the only reason.
• equally good views can be seen from the top of Park Güell (at Turó de les Tres Creus),
• the nearby remains of the anti-aircraft battery from the Spanish Civil War at El Carmel hill (sometimes wrongly referred as 'the bunkers' -no bunkers there, not now, not ever!),
• the Mirador de l'Alcalde (literally, the Mayor's gazer), located in Montjuïc mountain, with views over the Old Port.
• also, a bit further up in Montjuïc, the fortress of Montjuïc, which has views over the city seen from the west
• the absolute best is the lookout at the Torre de Collserola, also in the Collserola ridge, like mount Tibidabo... but it's very time-consuming to get there.

Enjoy!

Thank you all again!

Enric, your posts here are so incredibly helpful. I'm taking notes of all your suggestions.